THE BLACK GRASSHOPPER 195 



cinereus, Cordulegaster annulatus, or whatever it may 

 be, to the end of time. This grasshopper has no 

 common name that I can discover : I have caught and 

 shown it to the country people, asking them to name 

 it, and they informed me that it was a " grasshopper," 

 or else a "cricket." Black, or black and yellow, or 

 autumn grasshopper would do very well: but any 

 English name would be better than the entomologist's 

 ponderous double name compounded out of two dead 

 languages. 



Our black grasshopper lives in grass and herbage, in 

 the shade of bushes and trees, and so long as the 

 weather is hot it is hard to find him, as he keeps in 

 the shade. He is furthermore the shyest and wariest 

 of his family, and ready to vanish on the least alarm. 

 He does not leap, but slips away into hiding; and 

 if one goes too near, or attempts to take him, he 

 suddenly vanishes. He simply drops down through 

 the leaves to the earth, and sits close and motionless 

 at the roots on the dark mould, and unless touched 

 will not move. When traced down to his hiding-place 

 he leaps away, and again sits motionless, where, owing 

 to his dark colour on the dark soil, he is invisible. 

 Later, when the weather grows cool, he comes out and 

 sits on a leaf, basking by the hour in the sun, his 

 eyes turned from it ; and it is then easy to find him, 

 the dark colour making him appear very conspicuous 

 on a green leaf. Occasionally he sings in the afternoon, 

 but, as a rule, he begins at dusk, and continues for 



